Warning: SPOILERS lie ahead for The Hand That Rocks the Cradle!The cult classic thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle has been reimagined for a modern audience, and ends in a more thought-provoking way than the original. Led by Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Maika Monroe, the film centers on lawyer Caitlin Morales who, after giving birth to her second child, welcomes struggling childcare worker Polly Murphy into her home as a new sitter, not knowing of her plans to disrupt her harmonic family.
After initially succeeding in making Caitlin look like a danger to the family, the Hand That Rocks the Cradle ending sees the protagonist finally learn the truth about Polly, with her father having abused Caitlin when she was younger. Having failed to convince anyone, he was burned alive by Winstead’s character, which also resulted in the deaths of Polly’s whole family. Following a fight in which Caitlin was stabbed but briefly subdued Polly, she attempted to flee in her car with her infant daughter, with Polly attacking the windshield and dying after they crash into a car speeding through the neighborhood.
Prior to the movie’s release, Joe Deckelmeier interviewed Maika Monroe, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Mileiah Vega to discuss The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. When asked about the movie’s ending, which “really blurs the lines between victim and villain“, Winstead expressed that the climax is “not triumphant at all” for either Caitlin or Polly, something that she came to really love about the ending.
For her character, specifically, Winstead denoted that much of Caitlin’s life had seen “so much of her trauma pushed down and repressed“, and was “purposefully trying to move on from it without really healing“. As such, the personality we follow throughout the remake is “a whole new person” rather than the real Caitlin from when she was a child, even though “it’s impossible to run away from something like that“:
In the film, the relationship with Polly was an activator to make everything explode, but by the end, Caitlin has to be her true self. She has nothing left but her true self, and in a way, there’s a relief in that. There’s a big sadness that it ended the way that it did, though.
Despite the movie ending with Caitlin successfully escaping and killing Polly, Winstead doesn’t see it as “this triumphant ending of getting the bad guy in the end“. Instead, she feels “there is relief in that, at least now, Caitlin gets to just be who she is“, thinking this could “lead to more happiness for her down the road“.
For Monroe’s side of things, she felt “it was the most important thing for me to really love this character” in order to let Polly be more than a straightforward villain in the film. This not only opened the door for the star to “understand her“, but also to “have no judgment” in her actions and motivations, and expressed her hopes that “people will have sympathy for her“ and will potentially come away with “a tiny bit of understanding of where her anger comes from“:
I had to play the role, but so much of it was on the page already. [Director] Michelle [Garza Cevera] and I had so many conversations about her childhood, breaking down what that trauma manifests into.
Everything Else We Learned About The Hand That Rocks The Cradle From The Cast
ScreenRant: First of all, amazing job on The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. This story takes a familiar ’90s thriller and filters it through something really grounded and psychological. How did each of you connect with the idea that fear sometimes lives in the perfect home?
Maika Monroe: I love the horror genre, and the scariest movies to me don’t need to have blood or be gross. It’s the things that feel believable; the things I’m thinking about when I go to sleep at night. That’s why I feel like this movie is really so grounded, and that’s what makes it really haunting and disturbing.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead: Yeah, exactly. You get so invested in the characters, and they feel so real. We were trying to create was this feeling of connection; to make these people feel real, so that you can feel their fear and their anxiety, and you can relate to that and kind of go on that terrifying journey.
ScreenRant: Mary, Caitlin is this high-functioning modern woman, holding everything together on the surface, but underneath she’s carrying all this pressure and pain. How did you and Michelle Garza Cervera work together to peel back those layers and make her feel more than just a cliché?
Mary Elizabeth Winstead: Michelle is such an incredible collaborator, and my favorite thing in the world was getting to talk to her about Caitlin’s backstory, who she is, and who she presents herself to be — finding all the layers in between. My favorite thing to do is play a character who’s hiding something, whether consciously or unconsciously, and not really being their authentic selves. Slowly, you get to reveal what that is, which is such an amazing challenge and just so fun to do as an actor. When everyone around you is super talented, it makes it really easy. You get all those pieces together before you start, and then you just show up and do it together. It’s the best.
ScreenRant: Mileiah, this is such a chilling movie. What made you want to step into this psychological thriller, especially at such a young age?
Mileiah Vega: I love watching thriller movies; they’re so fun! The fact that I actually get to be in one is awesome. This is my first big movie, and it was great. It was actually really funny because I had to do a lot of auditions and callbacks, and then one day I was just in my house drawing. My mom walks into the office, and she’s on the phone with Ms. Michelle. She hands me the phone, and Ms. Michelle was like, “Mileiah, you got the role!” I just started crying. It was amazing!
ScreenRant: Speaking of Michelle Garza Cervera, she’s known for creating these powerful emotional horror stories. How did she help you find that emotion for some of those more intense scenes that you had?
Mileiah Vega: What’s really cool about working with her, and the way she actually helped me with those scenes, is that she gave me a lot of acting tips. She gave me some thoughts to put in my head, which actually helped me a lot. She just said that, any time the scene got too much for me or anything happened, I could always ask to take five. That actually really helped a lot, because I could actually have a break to cool myself down.
ScreenRant: Your character Emma starts off very upbeat, but then she becomes withdrawn after Polly enters her life. How did that challenge you as a young actor?
Mileiah Vega: It’s cool to change emotions so fast, but it was a bit hard because we didn’t film the scenes in order. So, one day I would be super happy, and then the next day I would have to be all emotional and super sad. It was a challenge, but I feel like it actually helped me improve. My acting coach, Ms. Kimberly, was super nice. She got all these character thoughts into my head. For Emma, I had to think a lot about how she feels in each scene. When they say cut, I can just let Mileiah flow back in, but I have to start getting back into Emma mode when we’re about to film again.
ScreenRant: Michelle spoke about finding things that you and Emma had in common. How much of that did you bring into your performance?
Mileiah Vega: I tried to bring as much as possible into Emma because when Michelle and I met in person for one of the callbacks, we were talking about how to make Emma be more like me, so that I would be more comfortable with the role. I like the color green, so Ms. Michelle made Emma’s favorite color green. I play piano, so you can see that Emma has a piano in her room in one of the shots.
ScreenRant: Did your onscreen parents, Mary Elizabeth Winsted and Raul Castillo, give you any advice on set?
Mileiah Vega: Yeah, they did. It was super fun working with them for my very first big movie. It’s actually awesome to work with these really famous people, and they actually gave me a lot of acting tips, which was super fun.
ScreenRant: Maika Monroe plays Polly, who has a very complicated relationship with Emma. What was it like filming those scenes together?
Mileiah Vega: It was really fun filming those scenes and talking to Maika about them. We actually started to feel connected with those scenes, and it was really cool when we got to rehearse them together. The scene that was the most fun for me, probably, was one they actually cut from the movie. There’s a clip of it in the trailer, which was one of the parts where Polly and Emma are sitting on a park bench, just talking about what the word “depressed” means. Emma’s like, “Is there something wrong with my mom?” But it was fun because we got to film that on a massive hill overlooking Yankee Stadium. But even just talking in between the scenes, while there was a birthday party in the background, was really cool. We had fun.
ScreenRant: This film deals with family trust and fear, but there are also moments of warmth. What’s something that you learned about acting or teamwork from being a part of this cast?
Mileiah Vega: I’ve never filmed something that’s taken this long before, so I learned that it actually helps a lot to interact with the cast and feel comfortable with them; to try to see how they are onscreen and offscreen. That helped a lot with my acting.
ScreenRant: When you saw the movie, were there any times you looked back and went, “Wow, that was spookier than when we filmed it?”
Mileiah Vega: Yeah, the part with the fireworks! That was really fun to film, and I remembered that it was stressful when filming because everything was so fast-paced. But when I watched, it was like, “Wow!”
ScreenRant: You’ve worked on Queen of the South and American Horror Stories. Do you like being a part of scary stories, or do you want to try something totally different for your next project?
Mileiah Vega: That’s the thing. I absolutely love horror stuff, but I would also like a chance to film things that aren’t horror. American Horror Stories was super fun to film, and everyone was amazing, but I feel like filming stuff that’s not horror is also pretty fun too. I actually had a lot of fun with the scenes that weren’t super scary or bloody or gory, but I do love being in horror stuff.
ScreenRant: What’s one thing you’ll always remember from working on The Hand That Rocks the Cradle?
Mileiah Vega: My little sister in the movie was named Josie, and for some of the scenes that Josie couldn’t be there, we had this fake doll named Silicone Josie. The doll was actually kind of creepy because it was life-sized. What’s hilarious is that it started to become a running joke on set, so everybody would just go up to each other and go, “Silicone Josie!” Somebody actually made Silicone Josie shirts, and it had tour dates in the back. We were joking about how it sounds like a rock band.
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle is now available to stream on Hulu and Disney+.
- Release Date
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October 22, 2025
- Director
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Michelle Garza Cervera
- Writers
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Micah Bloomberg, Amanda Silver